Antibaryon to Baryon Production Ratios in Pb-Pb and p-p collision at LHC energies of the DPMJET-III Monte Carlo

A sizable component of stopped baryons is predicted for pp and P bP b collisions at LHC. Based on an analysis of RHIC data within framework of our multichain Monte Carlo DPMJET-III the LHC predictions are presented.Comment: Presented at "Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC: last call for predictions", Geneva Switzerland, May 14th-June 8t

USE OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE TO CONVERT SOLUBLE STARCH DIRECTLY TO BIOETHANOL

Ethanol can be used as a complete fuel or as an octane enhancer, and has the advantages of being renewable and environmentally friendly. Ethanol produced by a fermentation process, generally referred to as bioethanol, is considered to be a partial solution to the worldwide energy crisis. Traditionally, industrial bioethanol fermentation involves two major steps: starch hydrolysis and fermentation. Since the key microorganism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, lacks amylolytic activity and is unable to directly utilize starch for proliferation and fermentation, it requires intensive amount of energy and pure starch hydrolyzing enzymes to gelatinize, liquefy and dextrinize the raw starch before fermentation. It has been suggested that genetically engineered yeast which expresses amylolytic enzymes could potentially perform simultaneous starch hydrolysis and fermentation. This improvement could greatly reduce the capital and energy costs in current bioethanol producing plants and make bioethanol production more economical. In this project, a novel yeast strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was genetically engineered in such a way that barley alpha-amylase was constitutively expressed and immobilized on the yeast cell surface. This particular alpha-amylase was selected based on its superior kinetic properties and its pH optimum which is compatible with the pH of yeast culture media. The cDNA encoding barley alpha-amylase, with a secretion signal sequence, was fused to the cDNA encoding the C-terminal half of a cell wall anchoring protein, alpha-agglutinin. The fusion gene was cloned downstream of a constitutive promoter ADH1 in a yeast episomal plasmid pAMY. The constructed plasmid, pAMY, also contains ampicillin and blasticidin resistance genes for selection of the plasmid harbouring clones in E. coli and yeast, respectively. By developing a starch plate assay, in which clear haloes formed around the successful colonies on a YPD-starch agar plate after staining with iodine vapour, it was shown pAMY harbouring yeast demonstrated detectable amylolytic activity. In addition, cell suspensions of pAMY harbouring yeast were incubated with 1% soluble starch in 16 mM sodium acetate buffer, pH 4.5, 45°C. The majority of soluble starch was converted into maltose within 6 hours and alpha-amylase activity was detected only in the cell pellet fraction and not in the culture supernatant. In batch fermentation studies using 2% soluble wheat starch as sole carbon source, even though pAMY harbouring yeast was able to hydrolyse 75% of soluble starch in 160 hours under the fermentation conditions, no ethanol was produced. This was felt to be due to insufficient alpha-amylase activity which resulted from the enzyme being anchored on the cell wall by alpha-agglutinin. Also, plasmid stability of pAMY harbouring yeast without the presence of selecting antibiotics was studied during batch fermentation experiments. The results suggest that soluble starch may positively select plasmid harbouring yeast cells to stabilize the population of plasmid harbouring cells over plasmid free cells in the fermentor during prolonged batch fermentation. Further research using alternative cell surface anchoring systems are being planned to produce yeast with high ethanol yields for industrial applications

Antiparticle to Particle Production Ratios in Hadron-Hadron and d-Au Collisions in the DPMJET-III Monte Carlo

To understand baryon stopping we analyse new RHIC and Fermilab data within the framework of the multichain Monte Carlo DPMJET-III. The present consideration is restricted to to hadron-hadron and d-Au collisions.Comment: 10 pages, 19 figures. The paper is expanded in a mayor way to include more dat

Inclusive distributions at the LHC as predicted from the DPMJET-III model with chain fusion

DPMJET-III with chain fusion is used to calculate inclusive distributions of Pb-Pb collisions at LHC energies. We present rapidity distributions as well as scaled multiplicities at mid-rapidity as function of the collision energy and the number of participants.Comment: Presented at "Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC: last call for predictions", Geneva Switzerland, May 14th-June 8t

The evaluation of a shuttle borne lidar experiment to measure the global distribution of aerosols and their effect on the atmospheric heat budget

A shuttle-borne lidar system is described, which will provide basic data about aerosol distributions for developing climatological models. Topics discussed include: (1) present knowledge of the physical characteristics of desert aerosols and the absorption characteristics of atmospheric gas, (2) radiative heating computations, and (3) general circulation models. The characteristics of a shuttle-borne radar are presented along with some laboratory studies which identify schemes that permit the implementation of a high spectral resolution lidar system

Initial State: Theory Status

I present a brief discussion of the different approaches to the study initial state effects in heavy ion collisions in view of the recent results from Pb+Pb and p+p collisions at the LHC.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the XXII International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions, QM2011. Annecy, France, 22-28 May 201

Particle production azimuthal asymmetries in a clustering of color sources model

The collective interactions of many partons in the first stage of the collisions is the usual accepted explanation of the sizable elliptical flow. The clustering of color sources provides a framework of partonic interactions. In this scheme, we show a reasonable agreement with RHIC data for pT<1.5 GeV/c in both the dependence of v2 transverse momentum and in the shape of the nuclear modified factor on the azimuthal angle for different centralities. We show the predictions at LHC energies for Pb-Pb. In the case of proton-proton collisions a sizable v2 is obtained at this energy.Comment: To appear in Journal of Physics

Thermodynamics of 3+ metal cation containing systems

xi, 149 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.Measurements of relative densities and relative massic heat capacities have been made for several aqueous rare earth chloride and perchlorate systems. Densities and relative massic heat capacities of acidified aqueous perchlorates of yttrium, ytterbium, dysprosium, and samarium as well as the chlorides of yttrium, ytterbium, dysprosium, samarium and gadolinium have been measured at the temperatures 288.15, 298.15, 313.5 and 328.15 K. Using the density and massic heat capacity data, apparent molar volumes and apparent molar heat capacities have been calculated. These data have been modeled using the Pitzer ion interaction approach as well as the Helgeson, Kirkham and Flowers equations of state. Apparent molar volumes and apparent molar heat capacities previously presented in the literature have been compared to the data presented here. single ion apparent molar volume and apparent molar heat capacity contributions were calculated. Infinite dilution properties have been compared to existing models used to predict infinite dilution properties. Densities of aqueous perchloric acid and ytterbium perchlorate at the temperatures from 348.15 to 423.15 K and at pressured from 10.00 to 30.00 MPa were measured. Apparante molar volumes were calculated from the density measurements. The apparent molar volume data were modeled using Pitzer ion interaction theory as well as HKF equations of state. Models presented are compared to existing models

Chronic granulomatous disease: the European experience.

CGD is an immunodeficiency caused by deletions or mutations in genes that encode subunits of the leukocyte NADPH oxidase complex. Normally, assembly of the NADPH oxidase complex in phagosomes of certain phagocytic cells leads to a "respiratory burst", essential for the clearance of phagocytosed micro-organisms. CGD patients lack this mechanism, which leads to life-threatening infections and granuloma formation. However, a clear picture of the clinical course of CGD is hampered by its low prevalence (approximately 1:250,000). Therefore, extensive clinical data from 429 European patients were collected and analyzed. Of these patients 351 were males and 78 were females. X-linked (XL) CGD (gp91(phox) deficient) accounted for 67% of the cases, autosomal recessive (AR) inheritance for 33%. AR-CGD was diagnosed later in life, and the mean survival time was significantly better in AR patients (49.6 years) than in XL CGD (37.8 years), suggesting a milder disease course in AR patients. The disease manifested itself most frequently in the lungs (66% of patients), skin (53%), lymph nodes (50%), gastrointestinal tract (48%) and liver (32%). The most frequently cultured micro-organisms per episode were Staphylococcus aureus (30%), Aspergillus spp. (26%), and Salmonella spp. (16%). Surprisingly, Pseudomonas spp. (2%) and Burkholderia cepacia (<1%) were found only sporadically. Lesions induced by inoculation with BCG occurred in 8% of the patients. Only 71% of the patients received antibiotic maintenance therapy, and 53% antifungal prophylaxis. 33% were treated with gamma-interferon. 24 patients (6%) had received a stem cell transplantation. The most prominent reason of death was pneumonia and pulmonary abscess (18/84 cases), septicemia (16/84) and brain abscess (4/84). These data provide further insight in the clinical course of CGD in Europe and hopefully can help to increase awareness and optimize the treatment of these patients